Relates to the regulation of live restraint cable devices to take wildlife; authorizes regulations by the department of environmental conservation

Title of bill

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to the regulation of live restraint cable devices to take wildlife

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of this bill amends ECL §11-1101(5) to authorize the DEC to allow the use of live restraint cable devices for the trapping of wildlife.

Section 2 of this bill provides for an immediate effective date.

Purpose and justification

The bill authorizes the use of live restraint devices for trapping, which operate on the same principle as a "linked" relaxing dog collar: when the animal pulls on the cable, the loop closes down; when the animal stops pulling, the loop relaxes. Consequently, animals captured in these devices typically show little or any injury.

These restraint devices have been thoroughly studied by several state agencies, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They are currently allowed to be used in 38 states and most Canadian provinces. Recently, Missouri (2004), Wisconsin (2004), Michigan (2005), and Pennsylvania (2005) changed their trapping regulations to allow the use of cable restraints. These initiatives were based largely on the new research done in support of the development of best management practices (BMPs) for trapping. All of these states have habitats, trapping conditions, and furbearer species that are comparable to those of New York.

As coyotes continue to move into developed areas and are trapped to control their populations, the possibility of trapping incidents involving domestic dogs may increase. The live-restraint devices are preferred by trappers and DEC in such circumstances because if a domestic dog were accidentally captured, it could be easily released with little or no injury. Cable restraints are also highly effective for capturing coyotes and are used by researchers throughout the country to catch coyotes for radio telemetry studies.

Cable restraints have been approved by a number of institutional animal care and use committees pursuant to the Federal Animal Welfare Act, and are used by researchers at both Cornell University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in support of Department-sponsored research. The specific mandate of these committees is to assure that the proposed capture techniques (i.e., cable restraints) are humane and consistent with animal welfare requirements. While cable devices are relatively simple, there are a number of very specific design features that are essential to their proper and humane functioning. These include the use of specific cable designs to assure proper closing and "relaxing," the use of "stops" to prevent the loop from closing too tightly, and the fitting of "relaxing lock" systems to ensure that the loop relaxes once an animal stops pulling. These technical requirements will be established by DEC rulemaking. DEC will regularly revise its regulations to specify new requirements as improvements in design and function of cable restraints are tested and approved.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implication

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.